Salicylates are the most widely used drugs in the United States. If taken in high doses, salicylates can cause a number of severe auditory side effects, the most common of which are temporary hearing loss and tinnitus. It has generally been assumed that the auditory effects of salicylates such as aspirin are temporary. However, recent results indicate that aspirin can cause an increase in the magnitude of hearing loss (TTS) induced by a given noise exposure and prolong the time needed for recovery. Given that industrial and recreational noise exposure is the most common cause of hearing loss in the adult population, it is important to know whether individuals taking salicylates are at increased risk for developing permanent hearing loss from noise exposure. Our primary goal is to determine if salicylates will increase the magnitude of hearing loss and hair cell loss induced by a well-defined noise exposure. A second goal is to determine what effects salicylates have on suprathreshold measures of hearing, specifically, temporal resolution (forward masking) and frequency selectivity (tuning curves). The results of this study have important implications for understanding how a drug that presumably produces only temporary hearing loss interacts with intense noises that can produce either temporary or permanent hearing loss. Furthermore, the results have important implications for developing occupational noise standards for industry.